What comes first: philosophy or politics?

In attacking theory as theory we often seem to be missing the point

For it is only criminals who presume to damage other people nowadays without the aid of philosophy." ~ Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities

As I’m seeing it, politics is the nature of life. It’s something we cannot avoid. It’s the framework in which we come together and relate to each other.

This is one reason why I get so irked by the ‘post-political’ or ‘politically independent’ perspective of many liberal progressives and the institutions that they dominate.  

In deriding politics, you could say that they are deriding life.

However I think this rather misses the point.

For to wield overarching social power in a (post-Christian) public sphere that claims to value democracy, equality and compassion requires some explanation, even contortion. The idea that politics – and therefore power – is something that should not be contested provides precisely that.